Seeing that distribution does help 
Reading the review I would have thought you actively disliked this movie, but bottom 8% is a lot worse than bottom 20%, or whatever I might have imagined 2 stars would mean, so it makes sense.
PSA: A Different Man is on Max now. I liked this one. Sebastian Stan just won a Golden Globe for it.
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Itâs because heâs doing Roman Roy karaoke on some level and people (myself included) love Roman Roy. Itâs also because heâs committing category fraud by running as a supporting actor when the movie is, if anything, more about his character than Eisenbergâs, and the competition isnât as strong this year in supporting. That puts Eisenberg in the untenable position of trying to topple some heavyweights for Best Actor, and itâs just not in the cards. I agree that he gives a strong performance and I really appreciate that this whole movie was his creation. He has been enjoyable as Iâve seen him doing interviews on his press tour too.
I wouldnât worry about Eisenberg; heâs not the one whoâs going to get an Oscar for this, but the success of this movie has been a big win for him.
All of the above said, I really enjoyed the Culkin performance, certainly more than it sounds like you did. But I get where youâre coming from.
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As expected, Wolf Man is out to some pretty bad reviews. Makes me sad. Whannell has made some fantastic movies. Onward to the next one.
a real pain (2024)
a sad story about a sad young man who doesnât really have a character arc. at the end, the boys are leaving jagged rocks on the ground in front of a strangerâs door, and a polish neighbor is like, âhey, someone could trip on thatâ and theyâre like, âno no itâs our special jewish custom to secretly leave sharp rocks on the ground where people walk and arenât lookingâ. but then when jesse eisenberg gets home he places the rock near the door but off to the side because thatâs what youâd do if you care about the person living there not accidentally stepping on it.
i think if you love isreal, youâll love this movie. 2 bags of popcorn
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a different man (2024)
almost like a the substance (2024) for boys, i think this movie is touching on a real cultural moment, with the proliferation of these ozempic-type drugs, a lot of people are rapidly and dramatically changing their bodies and this is like, a man dealing with still being the same person who was underneath all that.
itâs a drama/comedy, where the drama part is all the buildup before the change and as soon as oswald shows up itâs a laugh-a-minute comedy. i first came across the guy who plays oswald over a year ago he was posting videos on twitter about how heâs an actor and heâs gonna be in a big hollywood movie and iâm thinking âyeah right, look at you, hollywoodâs not gonna put you in any movieâ but it didnât take long for me to warm up to him because he has an exceptionally outgoing and charming personality, which brought another meta level to the movie.
so to me heâs a guy with a great personality and a hideous disfigurement playing a guy with a dour personality and a hideous disfigurement in a play within a film about a guy with a hideous disfigurement and a dour personality who suddenly becomes not just normal but downright handsome, like a young donald trump, who is then upstaged and kind of has all his dreams stolen from him by a guy with his exact disfigurement but with a more positive outlook on life.
as a believer in the power of positive thinking and a lover of strange movies and âbe careful what you wish forâ stories, this was right up my alley. 5 bags of popcorn
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Iâm sorry this was your takeaway.
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Anora was really good, especially if gratuitous nudity/sex doesnât bother you at all. Probably my top 3 of the year. I was lucky to catch a rerelease of it at my local theater and as a solo male watcher felt kinda awkward at some points lol. It never felt irrelevant to the plot at the end, but that opening was tough haha
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Thatâs one of his better ones, imo.
Definitely list-worthy for me.
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watched this one this week. good chance the post above prompted me to put it on my watchlist months ago, so thanks. I also feel exactly the same way about this movie, was a lot of fun (I wouldnât like if all movies were like this, but I would hate it even more if movies like this didnât exist !).
Perfect movie to watch tired on a week night. Looking forward to the sequel !
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Ok, The Insider is crossed off.
Intro thoughts:
- I got this on Blu-Ray from the library and man, was the picture fantastic. So much better than most of what I see streaming, which makes me wonder if I should be watching more stuff on Blu-Ray.
BUT - The movie skipped/froze 2-3 times (which is not uncommon for library rentals), which drove me absolutely bonkers. Definitely experienced more than $4 worth of irritation.
Ok, the movie:
I had only the most superficial idea of what this movie was about. I knew Russell Crowe was in it, was pretty sure it was about tobacco litigation, but thatâs about it. So I was pretty freaking confused when the movie opened up with Al Pacino interviewing an allegedly terroristic sheikh.
But things got on track after that, and I was pretty engrossed for the entire film. Not much you can say about the plot of a movie thatâs based on a real story, but there is a lot to say about the cast.
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Al Pacino was great. I approach new-to-me Pacino movies with a sense of caution or even dread, because I have absolutely no desire to see Scent of a Woman âHUAAAAHHHâ Pacino or Heat âGIMME ALL YOU GOTâ Pacino. But he was pretty restrained here, which was a very pleasant suprise.
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Hot take, maybe, but I thought Russell Crowe was good, but almost a generic shell that could have been played by a dozen other (talented) actors. Maybe this is a consequence of my expectations - I thought it was going to be a Russell Crowe movie, but it wasnât.
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Christopher Plummer was excellent, and easily the best part of the movie for me.
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I donât know what it is about her, but I just do not enjoy Lindsay Crouse. I thought she was actively bad in The Verdict and House of Games, and I flinched when she popped up here. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her performance in this movie, but she has such a distinctive look and voice that my strong prior opinions bled in every time she was on screen. Sorry Lindsay.
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Boy do I have a thing for Gina Gershon, but her glammed-up ~35 year old self was not remotely convincing as a top-of-the-corporate-ladder attorney.
Other mild nitpicks would be the weird opera-adjacent score and the unnecessarily long runtime.
Overall, though, the movie hit both dimensions of quality and enjoyability for me, so Iâm really glad this thread prompted me to finally see it. I donât think itâs going to rate high on rewatchability, so maybe I donât like it quite as much as some other people, but still itâs a 4 or 4.5/5 for me. Personal taste would be that I enjoy Collateral more than this, but I can easily understand calling this one the better film.
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If you enjoy blu-ray you should shop around for them, their are some pretty cheap sources out there, and it will give you a reason to go to garage sales againâŚ
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26 years later, âwhat got broken here doesnât go back together againâ only seems to have grown more resonant with time.
Personally I find the movie to be super rewatchable, though admittedly when I first watched it I probably would have echoed your sentiment. I understood why it had been a Best Picture nominee and I liked it quite a bit, but I did not see it as a five-star masterpiece the way I do today until I had lived with it for a bit and revisited it over time. I canât fault a person if they prefer Collateral; Collateral is great too.
On the subject of physical media: a good blu ray or especially a good 4K does look way better than streaming. Iâve been building a collection back up. Watched Reservoir Dogs on 4K yesterday and itâs crazy how good the picture is.
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Finally saw Whiplash and I wasnât really a huge fan. From googling, people seem to be all over the place in their interpretation of the ending
Yep, what is your interpretation?
A Different Man
7/10
I liked this film but I could see how people could go think itâs meh.
I have to give a shout out to Adam Pearson. He does a great job
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The Brutalist really failed by not having their release date being before today. If there was ever a day I wanted to see a 3 hour+ movie with an intermission it was today
Just thinking today of how people watched back to the future and thought Biff Tannen was the hero of the movie.
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What are the most dangerous documentaries ever made? As in, where the crew exposed themselves to dangers of all sorts to film it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1i5gax3/what_are_the_most_dangerous_documentaries_ever/
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I guess I hadnât watched a movie on Max in a while, but oh man does it suck. I have the plan with ads and they insert commercials DURING the movie? Fuck that. Thereâs at least one service that just throws them all in before the movie starts so there are no interruptions.
I can deal with ads during a show, but fuck off putting them in movies.
At least I was watching Juror #2, so it there wasnât really much of a flow to interrupt.
Movie was pretty good. I get the complaints about the end, but whatever. Itâs not like itâs a film Iâll be thinking about a month from now. Definitely an interesting plot concept, overall well done. Thought the ânon-nameâ actors on the jury were bad.
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